Generally speaking, hydraulically operated trash compactors in the prior art have used metal shafts or ramrods which are concentrically and slidably mounted for operation in a surrounding metal housing and are spring-loaded therein to receive a hydraulic pumping motion at one end of the housing. The ramrod extends through an opening at the other end of the housing where it is attached to a compacting or platen member operative to compress the trash within an adjacent trash container or the like. This basic hydraulically driven ramrod and housing assembly has been patterned after various types of hydraulically driven piston engines developed over the years in many diverse types of arts such as the field of railway locomotives.
Whereas these types of metal ramrod-driven trash compactors have proven very durable and entirely satisfactory in many respects of operation, the cost of these all-metal mechanical devices has been, for the most part, prohibitively expensive for large scale low cost production methods. More particularly, it has not been possible to substitute lower cost materials such as plastics for the metal components of these trash compactors on a one-for-one basis and thereby obtain a satisfactory and acceptable commercial product which exhibits good uniform trash compacting characteristics in combination with good liquid tight, leak free hydraulic operation. Furthermore, these types of all-metal hydraulically driven designs often require expensive metal guides and metal shafts surrounding the main ramrod member of the compactor in order to provide the necessary support and oscillation guidance for the back and forth motion of a heavy metal ramrod within its surrounding housing.